A HUDDLE followed by a sprint inside the centre-back and a shot across goal.
Rangers could have been forgiven for feeling haunted by the ghosts of Swedes past as they encountered a Larsson, Daniel of that ilk, at Ibrox on Tuesday night.
There must be an element of thankfulness in the Ibrox ranks that it was not Henrik, the clan chief, who was on the prowl in the Champions League qualifier, even at the age of 39.
Instead, it was the 24-year-old from Gothenburg who caused alarm in the home defence. Ally McCoist, the Rangers manager, spoke before the match of Malmo’s strength in attack and both Larsson and Wilton Figueiredo endorsed his words of warning.
The irony of a Larsson causing Rangers trouble was not lost on the Malmo striker after he scored the winner. “It is a good tradition for me to carry on,” he said.
More importantly, he talked about how the victory was achieved and displayed no great apprehension about the return leg in Malmo.
“It was a tremendous game for us and we are very proud to get away with a victory from here,” said the Swedish internationalist who could have scored before some punters had taken their seats at Ibrox.
Played in down the channel, Larsson left Madjid Bougherra behind before missing an excellent chance. “I got too near the goalkeeper and I just tried to get the ball past him and I did not have that much time to think and unfortunately it went wide,” he said.
However, he scored emphatically when given space by a Figueiredo flick and he was a crucial part of an enterprising performance by the Swedes. His pace was always a threat to Rangers, who reverted to a flat back four after David Weir, one of three central defenders employed at kick-off, limped off with a hamstring injury.
Malmo’s strategy was to break quickly on to the Rangers rearguard and it was formed after Rikard Norling, their manager, had spoken to the Larsson of Celtic vintage and to Johan Mjallby, the Parkhead side’s assistant manager.
“They both have very intelligent football minds and an understanding of what we wanted,” said Norling. “That information, combined with a knowledge of how Rangers liked to play, was clearly very important to us. I have now seen Rangers myself and we have played them, so will rely on my own opinion for the return match. But it was really important before the first game to get some flesh on the bones.”
Larsson was delighted at the way he and his team-mates adhered to the strategy. “We played according to our plan, defensively we were spotless,” he said.
Asked if he was surprised at how comfortable the victory was, the striker replied: “Maybe a little bit. We know we are a good team and we always believed we had the chance to come away with a good result. We showed in the game we had every right to believe in ourselves.
“I do no think we can be too disappointed, but thinking back on the game, we could have punished them a little bit more.”
Of suggestions that Rangers under estimated the Swedes, he said: “Perhaps.” He suggested Rangers could have been misled by the Swedes’ poor performance when they drew with Torshavn in the Faroe Islands in the previous qualifying tie.
He is prepared, though, for a difficult night on Wednesday. “They will come with everything they have to our home stadium. They will give it their best shot and we have to be very prepared to do the same,” he said.
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